Chapter 8 #2
They turned and walked back the way they’d just come, mock grave expressions on their faces. Mock because they were enjoying this. She followed, her curiosity winning out over her annoyance at their evasiveness. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.
When she saw the lights up ahead, filtering through the pines and cypress, her footsteps faltered. Disco music poured from the speakers planted all around the grounds. “Don’t tell me you tied the coon to the wall of shame.”
They’d never done it to a critter. You couldn’t blame an animal for being what it was, that’s what Jessup said whenever one caused trouble. As they neared the barn, she recognized “The Hustle.” She turned to her brothers. “You’re playing Ma’s disco music? Now that’s just cruel.”
Jessup chuckled. “We started out with Barry Manilow.”
Now she stepped up her pace, passing the two. She was nearly running when she barreled around the corner and came to a heart-blistering stop.
It wasn’t a raccoon clamped to the wall; it was Kade.
As was customary, he’d been stripped down to his black boxer briefs and blindfolded, arms out at his sides.
He was breathing; that was good. His dagger tattoo shimmered, fairly pulsed, so she was pretty sure he was conscious.
There was something…erotic about the sight of him like that, the light glistening off the sweat on his chest and washboard abs, and it twined down through her stomach.
Jessup waved a hand at Kade, as though presenting him as a prize. “So, I’m to understand you have no involvement with him?”
Her mouth opened but no words came out. Too many things cascaded into her mind at once.
First, that Kade had come back to her house alone.
Why, why would he have done that? That he’d gotten himself caught by her brothers.
That they hadn’t killed him—yet. And mostly how totally inappropriate it was being turned on by the sight of him trussed up like that. What the heck was she supposed to say?
Ryan said, “Jessup and I were helping Patry find a stray hog when we saw a car hidden in the woods off the main road. We tracked him down to your workshop, where he was walking out like he owned the place. He claims he’s doing you.”
“I didn’t say I was doing her,” Kade spat out. “Have some respect.”
Jessup stepped into her line of vision. “The only reason we didn’t kill him was because he swore you two have a thing.
I figured he was lying. Not my sister, dating a Vega.
” He said it the same way other Crescents said “Fringers.” “Especially not this one. But I figured, what the hell, keep him here and find out for sure before we gut him.”
Violet leaned to the side, giving herself a moment to pull together a response. “If I Can’t Have You” was playing now.
Kade was pushing subtly against the cuffs that held his wrists, fingers flexing. It was no use. He wouldn’t be able to use his magick. “Sorry, babe, but I told them about us meeting in Naples, how we clicked, as crazy as that was.”
He was calling her babe again. Gods.
Jessup rubbed his hands together. “So can we kill him for trespassing and because he’s an asshole in general?”
They would kill Kade if she refuted his claim.
He’d been in this tough position too, outnumbered with no other recourse than to tell them that story.
And he hadn’t harmed them with his powerful magick.
If Kade had been fighting in any other situation, he would have put a hurting on his attackers.
Her brothers looked scraped and bruised, but she didn’t see any serious injuries.
As much as she hated the idea of betraying her family this way, she had no choice.
“We’re…involved.”
“String her up with him,” Jessup said to Ryan, shaking his head in disgust.
Ryan made to grab her arm, but she shook him off. “No! You all may run my life, but you don’t get to tell me who I fall for. I don’t even have a say in that, apparently,” she muttered under her breath.
“Vee, the last time you fell for some guy, it was that idjit Bren, who was only using you to find out our trade secrets. I warned you, but you had stars in your eyes.” Jessup waggled his fingers in front of his eyes, his disdain clear.
“Stars for making peace between the families more than for him,” Ryan added. “Remember, Jessup, she was only fourteen when Dad died. It hit her hard.”
“And little Roddy died, too,” Violet said, the cousin who’d been killed during their retribution. “I didn’t want anyone else killed.”
“All I’m saying is, you don’t have the best judgment where men are concerned.” Jessup pointed at Kade. “Obviously. You should’a just gone for one of the Murphy boys.”
“Augh. Kade’s far different than the Murphys.”
“Like how? He’s our enemy, so are they. Maybe he’s better-looking.” Jessup wrinkled his nose. “I’ll give him that.”
“He’s got class. Prestige. Discipline.”
Jessup waved his finger in a circle. “Whoop-de-doo. He’s got his cause, we have ours. But his badge makes us a lot of trouble. What’s going on with you two exactly? He said the word love.”
She had to keep her eyebrows from shooting up.
Oh, Kade. Really? Just bury me deeper. “In love. You know, a nudge past infatuation. Oh, you wouldn’t know, because you two never get to the in-love part.
You wait. Wait ‘til you fall in love and see if you have any choice in the matter. See if it makes sense.”
Jessup looked at Ryan. “First she wants to go off and find fancy designers to buy our skins, then we let her start making jewelry, and now this.” He nodded toward Kade. “She’s gotten too full of herself.”
Violet jabbed her collarbone. “I am full of myself. Finally. I put in my time slopping around in the mud checking water temps and slinging Gator Chow. I pitch in where I’m needed and do the books for the farm. But I’m a grown-up, and that means I get to make my own decisions.”
“Mistakes, you mean,” Jessup grumbled.
“Remember how you thought I was being silly contacting foreign designers? You stopped minding that our skins were being made into girly stuff when our biggest checks started to come from them. Now I want to do the things I want to do.”
“And you want to do him?” Jessup shifted his gaze to Kade, which made her look his way, too. “A Deuce?”
Her Dragon stirred. And purred!
Pretending! Big fat illusion, you dumb beast. He’s not even Dragon.
Of course, each time they kissed, and that time he’d had his hands on her, she’d totally ignited. The memory now heated her blood and made her want things she shouldn’t. In the midst of all this craziness, she had no business believing the charade she and Kade were putting on
“Vee,” Jessup pressed. “Do you want him?”
“Yes,” she said, the word hoarse and scratchy. “Damn it, I get grief if I date a Fringer. I get grief if I date an outsider. Mundanes are out. There’s nothing else!” Frustration stretched her words taut. No pretending there.
Jessup shook his head in his I can’t believe this way.
He approached Kade, whose body tightened in response, even if he couldn’t see him.
Jessup pointed his finger at him. “You pull anything or do anything to hurt my sister or my family, and I’ll string you up here and cut off your appendages one by one. And I’ll enjoy it.”
He gestured for Ryan to go with him. She followed them, hating their disgust at her. She’d spent her life trying to live up to them, and after her dad had died, they’d stepped into the father figure role. Once they were out of Kade’s earshot, she halted them.
“It’s temporary, I swear, so stop looking at me like I’ve just wrecked the family name.” Or their trust in her.
“Do you know what hell we’ll suffer if word gets out that you’ve taken up with a Vega? And a Deuce, to boot?” Ryan asked. “We’re not supposed to even like Deuces, much less date them.”
“I’m not taking up with him.” She glanced at the “him” in question, then forced her gaze back to her brothers. “We started talking, we laughed, and our eyes sort of locked onto each other’s. Have you ever felt a zing with someone?”
“What’s a zing?” Jessup asked.
She put herself back in that moment at Guard headquarters.
“A sudden and surprising shock that feels really good. Your chest tightens and your throat goes dry and your body tingles. That’s what we felt.
I called him after Arlo’s death, and he’s helping me figure out what’s going on.
I know it’ll never work but right now it’s…
nice,” she finished on a soft breath. Too nice.
“You’ll kick him to the curb eventually?” Jessup asked, his expression skeptical.
“Have I gotten involved long term with anyone?”
“Well, no.”
“So there. And turn this music off.”
She watched them wander off, both shaking their heads, and waited until they disappeared into the darkness. Then she returned to the specimen on the wall. Annoyingly, her stomach tightened. Her body tingled. Damn it, she was supposed to be mad at him.
“You.” She had to keep her voice down because she could feel her brothers’ presence hovering just out of sight.
Instinctively, they knew something wasn’t right.
She knew how to get rid of them. She grabbed a thick wooden block and set it in front of Kade, then stepped up on it so they were face-to-face.
“That you, Vee?” he asked. He inhaled, his mouth curving into a smile.
“Yes, babe,” she said, a bite in her voice.
“My brothers are still watching,” she whispered.
To let him know that they still had to play the charade.
She was inches from what she called a superhero chin, square with a deep cleft in it.
She had the weirdest urge to run her finger down the groove.
He smelled of sweat, aftershave, and mud, an alluring combination.
Her Dragon was really purring now, which made her even madder.
She leaned close to his ear, which made his mussed hair tickle her cheek. “Why did you come back to my house? You were supposed to wait for me at Ernie’s.”